


Into a Cobalt Sea

by Jenshih_Blue



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 12:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/466094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenshih_Blue/pseuds/Jenshih_Blue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exhausted, faith tested, they both wonder if they are enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into a Cobalt Sea

**Author's Note:**

> AU Post Season 4 “Lazarus Rising” & “Are you there God? It’s me Dean Winchester” contains religious theories possibly upsetting some people.

_But now, but now—_

_The sun dies into a cobalt sea,_

_a reflected spear of its demise_

_aimed across horizon miles_

Quoted from **_“The Impaler in Love”_**

~ Rick Wilbur ~

 

Since the descent along with hundreds of his brothers and sisters, Castiel had been exhausted, worn to the core. As the hours slipped through his fingers, he wondered how these humans bore their existence in these shells of flesh and bone. His muscles ached, his vision on occasion blurred, and the hunger. At first, he’d not understood the need for sustenance, but now it was just another lesson for him to learn among so many that he’d learned since he’d taken this human form. He feared this war that was coming and he knew, for the first time in thousands of years, confusion.

His assignment had been simple. Descend into Hell and retrieve the soul of the human hunter known as Dean Winchester. An angel was a warrior, a soldier, pure and simple, and Castiel had never thought to question his creator’s command, now he wished he had. It was unconscionable that Lilith was playing these games. Bad enough that Azazel had dared touch the creator’s chosen humans, now his main rival for second in command of hell was opening the seals.

Sixty-six seals, each one a measure of darkness, and a step closer to the apocalypse. Just hours ago as the Winchesters and their fellow hunter, Bobby Singer, had faced down the dezians of one of the seals, Castiel had watched from afar. His remaining brothers gathering after Lilith’s brethren had escaped in a flurry of blood and ash with one of the seals retrieved from the ruins of a church, long buried beneath the sands just north-east of the Dead Sea, outside the city of Amman. He’d left them to burn their dead upon a pyre, the sun rising against the backdrop of the desert cliffs and swirling sand.

As the first light of the sun had warmed his face, Castiel had sighed softly, eyes closed against the brightness of its fire, and he moved between the folds back to South Dakota. His passing stirred the curtains at the windows of the house as he lowered quietly to the floor mere feet from where his charge lay curled on his side, sleeping the sleep of the dead. Only days before he had been among the dead, the damned of Hell, but Dean was not there for the evil he’d committed, but rather was there because of the sacrifice he’d made. Lilith had used her whore of a daughter to lure Dean away after Azazel’s games had cost his brother his life.

Castiel knew these things for he’d been watching over Dean and his brother for some time. He’d held vigil over Samuel’s lifeless body as Dean had slipped away to make the deal that would change the course of human history. Later he would bow before his creator, brow pressed to the ground at the being of light’s feet and he’d questioned softly why Samuel had been allowed to die. Gentle laughter had filled him and the ethereal voice teased his very being.

“ _Castiel, my beloved child, to know life and death you must embrace them both. To fulfill their destinies both Samuel and Dean must suffer death, then resurrection._ ”

Sighing, Castiel leaned against the sink, gaze never leaving Dean’s sleeping form. After a momentary silence, he leaned further back, his eyes closing and the moonlight passing through the window behind him to tickle across the skin of his borrowed face, worn and tired, his lips chapped from the heat of the desert. He sensed the moment Dean woke from his slumber, although there was no external sign.

They silently contemplated one another’s presence for a handful of heartbeats then Dean pushed himself up from the floor where he’d been resting. Turning his head, Dean met Castiel’s gaze across the open wide space then turned away, his gaze settling on his brother who slept on silently, long limbs stretched out across the worn sofa. Castiel could feel his every emotion as he studied his brother. That kind of love was rarely known upon this earth.

Pushing up off the floor, Dean cautiously approached him, his body thrumming with energy, and his muscles taunt. Castiel knew without a doubt that he was about to have his first fight with Dean. The man was insufferable and a paradox to him. Had he a choice he might leave Dean to the care of another of his brothers or sisters, but the word had been spoken. Besides Samuel was far too important as was Dean to the outcome of the war.

The argument came just as Castiel knew it would and his patience was worn thin as fine-spun spider silk. He’d seen too much bloodshed in Amman. Despite their losses and the battle that had been waged they, God’s warriors, had lost to those black-eyed bastards who served Lilith. He allowed Dean to see the truth of what the future held for his world, for the world that Castiel, his brothers, and sisters sacrificed themselves to save. Fury burned bright alongside passion in his eyes and for the first time Dean saw what Castiel was beneath the human skin, not like the psychic Pamela had, but rather something of another flavor.

Dean’s throat had closed up, his eyes going wide in disbelief, and filling with fear. The innocent child-like expression of terror on his face drew Castiel’s anger and power back into him. A split second later, he’d slipped back into the folds leaving Dean alone in the moonlight and stunned. Dean stumbled on autopilot back to his bedding and curled up, tumbling deep into sleep. That night he dreamt of one image repeatedly, the sun falling from the sky and its flames dying in a cobalt sea. When he woke, he only remembered the conversation he’d had with Castiel not the fear those cobalt eyes had instilled in his dreams.

 

~*~

 

Castiel appeared on the rocky shore, the taste of salt and bitter frustration on his tongue. It was nearing nightfall now on the shores of the Dead Sea and the waters were darkening from the turquoise they were beneath the brilliant desert sunlight to deep cobalt.

“You should watch yourself, Castiel,” a light musical feminine voice called out in the silence.

He turned his gaze to his right and perched on a salt encrusted stone, jutting from the water, was a woman dressed in a long cotton skirt and matching tunic. Her bare toes were flexing against the rock, a faint wind lifting the tangle of dark curls that hung down her back.

“Watch myself?” Castiel lifted one eyebrow curiously.

The woman turned, her mahogany eyes narrowing, “Do not play stupid, Castiel, my brother. It does not befit you. This night, nay less than an hour ago, you nearly blinded your charge with, but a hint of your true power.”

Castiel snorted, “Do not preach to me, Gabriel. Dean Winchester is a spoiled, sarcastic, child who’s father apparently did not believe in discipline. You don’t have any idea what his insufferable attitude is like and…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Gabriel leapt from her perch gracefully and landed at Castiel’s side. “Our creator has given you the task of guiding him through the path of destiny that he and Samuel were born too. Although,” a faint look of bemusement curled her lips, “the fact that he equates your power with your borrowed human eyes is highly amusing. Humans always have believed that the eyes are the windows to the soul.”

Castiel frowned, “My eyes—really?”

“His sub-conscious recalls your power as the cobalt waters of a sea and he as the sun dying in them.” Gabriel turned away looking out across the water. “You must not allow his impertinence to annoy you in such away again or you may be called back from the frontlines. Now, go back to your charge.”

Kneeling, Castiel bowed his head, “Yes, Gabriel, it shall be done.”

Standing he turned and vanished in a shimmer of air, leaving Gabriel to her thoughts as night engulfed the lifeless waters before her. She hoped that Castiel kept to his path and did not allow the stubbornness of his charge to infuriate him again in such a way. Perhaps Castiel needed some help to succeed after all stubbornness was in the Winchester blood—it always had been.

With a soft laugh, she walked forward into the water, body fading, and vanished into the cobalt sea.

 

~Finis~     


End file.
